Decision log
Keep every decision
linked to its tasks
Six months from now someone will ask why the team shipped the beta before the redesign. A decision log answers that, when each decision is easy to find and the tasks it started point back to it.
Updated
What a decision log
should hold
One entry per decision, short enough that people write it while the discussion is still fresh. Five things are enough.
The decision
In one sentence, written as a statement (“Ship the mobile beta first”), not a topic (“Beta timing”).
Why
The context and the options you weighed, including the ones you rejected.
Who and when
The owner and the date.
Status
Proposed, accepted or superseded, so an old decision is never mistaken for the current one.
What follows
The tasks the decision started. This is the part that usually gets lost, and the reason to keep the log next to the tracker.
One row, for example
Ship the mobile beta before the web redesign · the redesign is two months out · Maya Chen, October 12 · Accepted · three tasks, one in progress.
Step by step
Make the log from a CSV
In zvena the log is a Docs database and the follow-ups are tasks in Projects.
Save the CSV here as Decision log.csv, then in a Docs page's ⋯ menu choose Import, then CSV, and pick the file. Dates and the status column are recognized; the other columns arrive as text. Open a row and its page opens beside the table, with room to write: Context, Options considered, Decision, Follow-ups.
Decision,Status,Owner,Decided on,Area
Ship the mobile beta before the web redesign,Accepted,Maya Chen,2026-10-12,Product
Use TestFlight for the first beta,Accepted,Leo Martins,2026-10-13,Engineering
Keep the free plan at 2 GB per account,Proposed,Priya Patel,2026-10-14,Pricing
Pause the weekly newsletter until launch,Superseded,Sam Rivera,2026-09-30,Marketing
Review beta feedback every Friday,Accepted,Priya Patel,2026-10-14,ProductFollow-ups become
live tasks
Under Follow-ups, type each next step on its own line, select the lines and choose Create task. Each becomes a live task in Projects, and the decision shows its status as it changes.
Notes and tasks, step by stepThe reason, one click
from the task
Open any of those tasks from Projects, My tasks or search: it says which page it came from, and Related lists the decision. Whoever holds the task can read why it exists without asking.
Habits
Habits that keep it useful
- One decision per rowIf a page needs the word “and” in its title, it is two decisions.
- Link, don't copyRefer to the task or the design instead of pasting its text; the link stays current when the work moves.
- Set the status when it changesNot at the end of the quarter. An outdated “Accepted” is worse than no log. When a decision is replaced, set it to Superseded and name the new one.
- Write the options you rejectedThey are what people ask about later.
- Share itA page can be published read-only from Share → Publish; search engines skip it unless you allow indexing.
Limits
What zvena does not do for you
- There is no special “decision” typeThe log is a Docs database, so the fields and statuses above are conventions you set, not rules zvena enforces.
- Tasks need edit rightsA follow-up becomes a task only for someone who can edit the page and add tasks. Without an account, Try it now gives you a workspace of your own to try it in.
- The link is made by you or by Create taskTyping a task into a plain checklist does not link it to anything.
- No decision-log template yetThe Task tracker and Roadmap templates are databases you can reshape into a log.
Questions and answers
No. Any team that makes choices others depend on can use it: a launch plan, a hiring process, a research project. The example is a product team; the method does not depend on it.
Meeting notes record what was said; the log records what was decided and why, one row per decision, so it can be filtered and searched. The two work together: the notes-and-tasks guide shows how action items from a meeting become tasks.
It becomes a task like any other. If smart suggestions are on in the workspace, the task's text can be sent to our model provider to suggest a priority, label or assignee. The privacy policy lists what is sent, and the workspace owner can switch it off.
Yes. Every page exports as PDF, HTML or Markdown & CSV (a database as CSV), and Settings has Download all my data, which you can restore into a new workspace.